Kronos Posted March 16, 2014 Report Posted March 16, 2014 We're crazy spoiled for good free TV WWE wrestling these days -- with good matches almost guaranteed across every one of the five shows a week. During the Attitude Era (1996-01?), it was crash TV, with a lot of run ins and 3-min matches. It's kind of the updated version of the classic WWF tv model from the 70s-80s. But surely there were some worthwhile matches from WWF across that roughly 5 year period? What are they?
Loss Posted March 16, 2014 Report Posted March 16, 2014 All from RAW, all I haven't seen in years, and all are matches I think that will probably look more "fun" than "good" now: Foley vs Funk - 5/4/98 Rock vs Mankind - 2/15/99 (Ladder Match) 10-man tag - 2/7/00 HHH vs Jericho - 6/12/00 Austin vs Benoit - 11/20/00 Rock/Jericho vs Benoit/Show - 01/22/01
Kronos Posted March 16, 2014 Author Report Posted March 16, 2014 Ooh I remember that 10-man. IIRC the crowd was just blazing hot, on the level of the Foley title-win crowd.
jm29195 Posted March 16, 2014 Report Posted March 16, 2014 There was some crazy tag match from around Fully Loaded 1998 with, I think, Kane/Mankind, Austin/Taker, the Outlaws and Rock and Dlo that really stood out to me at the time. I would also shorten the parameters of this to pre 2000, as the departure of Russo, the arrival of the Radicals and the ascendency of Edge, Christian, the Hardy's and Angle led to longer matches with less run ins and nonsense. I could easily pick decent TV stuff from 00-01 but really struggle for 98-99 fwiw.
Kronos Posted March 16, 2014 Author Report Posted March 16, 2014 I would also shorten the parameters of this to pre 2000, as the departure of Russo, the arrival of the Radicals and the ascendency of Edge, Christian, the Hardy's and Angle led to longer matches with less run ins and nonsense. I could easily pick decent TV stuff from 00-01 but really struggle for 98-99 fwiw. That certainly fits with Loss's list, which skews post-Russo, too.
PeteF3 Posted March 16, 2014 Report Posted March 16, 2014 This may be a completely wacky pick, but Al Snow vs. Road Dogg for the Hardcore title at a Raw in, I think, Cleveland (RD was the champ). I don't think I've seen it since it aired but I immediately thought it stood out in a positive way from the myriad other Hardcore matches of the time.
C.S. Posted March 16, 2014 Report Posted March 16, 2014 This may be a completely wacky pick, but Al Snow vs. Road Dogg for the Hardcore title at a Raw in, I think, Cleveland (RD was the champ). I don't think I've seen it since it aired but I immediately thought it stood out in a positive way from the myriad other Hardcore matches of the time. Was that the one where they fought out onto the snowy streets? If it's the same one, I liked that very much. Great wrestling, no. Unique, yes.
Jimmy Redman Posted March 16, 2014 Report Posted March 16, 2014 Austin/Hunter vs Jericho/Benoit is an obvious one. Unless we don't want to count post-WM/post-buyout 2001.
Guest TheGreatPuma Posted March 17, 2014 Report Posted March 17, 2014 At the time, to my knowledge this was the first match on TV/Non PPV in a loooong time that went over X amount of minutes in a match. When 2000 arrived we were breaking away from the scary "Nobody likes boring wrestling, Everybody only likes attitude/ exciting shock factor/it factor mentality" of 1998 and 1999 especially thanks to the Radicals, Jericho, Angle, Hardyz, Rock and others. At this time I felt it was finally being shown to everyone that people have and always will like wrestling. This match felt like one of those breakthroughs as it symbolised the WWF not being scared to have a match over 3 minutes long like in the Attitude times. After this we saw more matches being able to break X amount of minutes in time. And now in 2014 as time has shown since than people still love their wrestling matches. 1999 though was a scary time to be a wrestling fan. The thought process of hating the wrestling and loving everything else was prominent. It was tough and scary at the time for various reasons to know how prominent that thought process would become.
Sidebottom Posted March 17, 2014 Report Posted March 17, 2014 Benoit vs Eddie and Angle vs Rock on the same Raw back in 2001 were both marvellous, in the run up to Mania 17.
ButchReedMark Posted March 17, 2014 Report Posted March 17, 2014 There's a great little Funk/Rhodes/Bradshaw vs Lawler/Too Much six man off Shotgun in 98.
peachchaos Posted March 17, 2014 Report Posted March 17, 2014 Since the thread starter included 1996 & 1997 in his "Attitude Era", I'd say there was a bunch of good stuff from those years that hasn't been mentioned in this thread. Most of it involving the Harts, Austin, DX & Mankind.
Kronos Posted March 17, 2014 Author Report Posted March 17, 2014 Since the thread starter included 1996 & 1997 in his "Attitude Era", I'd say there was a bunch of good stuff from those years that hasn't been mentioned in this thread. Most of it involving the Harts, Austin, DX & Mankind. That's why I included a question mark in my year range. I was really thinking about the WWF side of the MNW, and I used "Attitude Era" as a catch-all term.
Zenjo Posted March 18, 2014 Report Posted March 18, 2014 At the time, to my knowledge this was the first match on TV/Non PPV in a loooong time that went over X amount of minutes in a match. When 2000 arrived we were breaking away from the scary "Nobody likes boring wrestling, Everybody only likes attitude/ exciting shock factor/it factor mentality" of 1998 and 1999 especially thanks to the Radicals, Jericho, Angle, Hardyz, Rock and others. I would say that the main reason things began to change in 2000 was because of Smackdown. With just the 2 hours of Raw in the late 90's then the whole show was taken up with angles, skits and promos. There wasn't any time left for the matches. When Smackdown came along there were now two weekly 2 hour shows featuring all the top stars. The first few months in 99 were crash TV with loads of title changes and far too much going on. The writers figured out that there was so much happening it wasn't sustainable. So in 2000 they realised that there was plenty of time each week for all the 20m promos and wacky attitude era shit that they wanted to do. And if the matches were a bit longer then that's the extra TV time taken care of.
Bierschwale Posted March 18, 2014 Report Posted March 18, 2014 When I saw this topic, my immediate thought was "Maybe on Super Astros?", which definitely says a lot about late-'90s Raw. But: Tag Team Match El Hijo del Santo & Negro Casas defeat Pantera & Taka Michinoku. Well, I'm intrigued.
GSR Posted March 18, 2014 Report Posted March 18, 2014 Completely off topic, but never imagined I'd be looking at a Leigh Halfpenny avi on here Butch!
MikeCampbell Posted March 18, 2014 Report Posted March 18, 2014 HHH vs. Rikishi and HHH from TAKA from Smackdown, back when HHH was willing to make others look good.
ButchReedMark Posted March 18, 2014 Report Posted March 18, 2014 Completely off topic, but never imagined I'd be looking at a Leigh Halfpenny avi on here Butch! Man crush!
FedEx227 Posted March 18, 2014 Report Posted March 18, 2014 Jericho vs. Triple H from 2000: MODERATOR'S NOTE: Removed YouTube link of WWE-owned footage.
jushin muta liger Posted March 19, 2014 Report Posted March 19, 2014 From what I remember that hasn't been mentioned is the Austin vs Benoit match from Smackdown in 2001 was good but I haven't watched it in years. I remember Austin having good matches overall in 2001 but I need watch them again to see if that was true.
Kronos Posted March 19, 2014 Author Report Posted March 19, 2014 I like the theory that with the rise of SD, they felt like they had time to work longer matches. It makes sense. Watch the 3-hour Nitros to see how hard it is to fill time with just stupid angles.
Bierschwale Posted March 21, 2014 Report Posted March 21, 2014 I remember Austin having good matches overall in 2001 but I need watch them again to see if that was true. He has the strap match against Regal in '01.
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